Show HN: Legend of Pipimon – Soon Multiplayer (play.google.com)

Hey He wanted to make games. I wanted to find a common activity with him that would be interesting for both of us. The key here, I think is that it was his idea - something that he wanted to do. So I had several conversations with him till I understood better what he wanted to do. During that time I also explained him the choices he has to make (i.e compromise on requirements but deliver faster). Never developed games before but have long career as a software developer so it was both interesting to learn game development together with him and not so hard for me - thereby allowing us to get results quickly without affecting my other time commitments. The most important aspect for me was to keep him going and not giving up. This meant choosing tools that have small learning curve. Then choosing tasks that are small enough so that we could complete them quickly. The above creates a quick positive feedback loop, which keeps him interested to go further. I am also having lot’s of fun. The challenging parts is to know where to let him take on a challenge by himself and where to give more help. In general you should give as much help as he needs and over time the kid gets more stuff done alone. But I also had to push him in this direction by giving him different ideas of things he could compete by himself. The other challenge is more mine personal where I still have to commit enough free time to have a few sessions per week with him to work on the game.